Ride irish advice

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Alex99

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Hi Everyone i was wondering if anyone has any experience with ride irish? I have seen a few old posts on them and the feedback has been that they are a good horse supplier but does anyone know what the prices are like?? (i imagine quite expensive but does anyone has a ball park figure?)
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I have had no dealings with them, but what I can see is that they are quite pricey
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However I ride past the fields where they keep them regularly (and will do tomoz
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) and I must say they have some lovely horses there
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thats what i was afraid of! ;-) there horses do look lovely on the website tho and they are good ages too. It just seems so much easier going to a reputable dealer than trawling through ads and visiting horses that arnt wat the adverts say.....thankyou all for your responses tho!x
 
Welcome to the forum! My new mare originally came from Ride Irish. Her previous owners had her for a year before I got her. Shes so wonderful. Good confidence giver. Im not sure how much they bought her for but I would say under 5k. You could probably get a decent horse for between 2-5k from them.
 
ooh 2-5 hey, well that sounds a bit more feesable! glad to hear your enjoying your mare, i have heard lots of good things about them so may visit them some time soon.
 
Lol oh ok maybe im far off then. All I can say is mine cost me £4950 and she probably cost less when she was bought from ride irish. And when I was looking for a horse I emailed them and gave them a budget of 4k-5k and they said they had suitable horses if I wanted to go look.
 
The way it seemed to work when myself and a friend went to look is, you tell them your budget and they will make a horse cost the top end of said budget
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I would say to tell them 1k below your budget and hope for a horse that fits, that way they wont bump up the price!!!

Having said that, the horses were lovely.... the people were lovely, not pushy at all, and it all went very smoothly.

Friend paid a tad short of 5k for a 4 year old coloured.
 
Thats usually the way dealers work when they dont put prices on the website. But saying that the dealer I viewed some horses at had a guide line on her website of * meaning 2.5-5k. The horse I particurly went to see had that * in the price box then she said after I rode him and liked him. He's 6k. I was like oh... ok he's too expensive. On her website it said anything over 5k would have POA in the price box. They make the prices up as they go along. I really wonder how much they pay for them in the first place.
 
We got our lad from a friend who originally got him from Ride Irish. She got him 3 years ago as a 6 yr old (although vet thought he was younger than 6) She paid £5,750 for him.

She only hacked him so when we got him he was still very green but adores his jumping & is coming on very nicely. He is not nervous and is very confident & bold, although he has got attitude when he feels like it. So many Irish horses I have come across have been quite nervous of men but, judging by our lad he was obviously treated well at Ride Irish. The only thing he hates is to have his ears touched & I have been told by my vet that it is common to ear twitch them in Ireland, so we assume he has had this done at some stage of his life. We are taking it slowly & gaining his trust to brush his ears as he just loves to use his poo as a pillow!! We love him to bits and are really pleased with him.

Before we found him, we too went to Ride Irish to try out some horses. They were friendly & allowed us to have a proper trial over showjumps, XC jumps (although they are a bit basic) & we hacked them down the lane. They left us to it which was great for us not to have them stood over us all the time.

We too were wary of buying from a dealer as so many of my friends have done so, only to get them home & find that they actually need very firm handling as this is all they've been used to & they will try it on big time if you are too soft with them.

We had the best of both worlds as my friend had got him & we had seen him hacking up the A29 in heavy traffic. He is not spooky in the slightest & is very loveable.

Out of interest have you seen a particular horse on his website that you like the look of? They have one with the same sire as my lad for sale at the moment & another who could be the twin of my lad but it doesn't say who his Dad is on the website.

Good luck on whatever you decide to do.

 
Neddy your horse sounds quite like my mare. She was bought just over a year ago from Ride Irish and had a novice rider who rode around on the buckle with her. She knows how to work properly but is just stubborn with working in an outline after not having to with her previous owner but knows the basics of most lateral movements and is very willing. Her jumping she isnt the most careful and takes poles down when there is no need sometimes but she is confident and bold and honest. I was nervous of fillers after being ditched at them so many times but my 3rd jumping lesson on her we sticked colourful jump4joy fillers infront of her and she didnt bat an eyelash at them. I can mess up my striding (like last saturday) and cause her to go through a jump but 2nd attempt she doesnt backoff. Its doing wonders for my confidence and we are really bonding sooo much. She has a lot of trust in me now. Only had her 8weeks.

Shes great out hacking. Managed to do gates on sunday. First time out on the road alone together and she didnt spook at any traffic.

I guess the only bad point about her is her feet have bad angles I think. Her front feet turn in slightly and her back turn out slightly. But vet assured me it wont affect her unless I was going to make a big performance horse out of her which im not. Riding club and low level eventing is my aim.

I have no idea of Tia's sire or dam. Passport just says unknown. I think I might email ride irish just to see if they would have any record of her and where she came from out of curiousity.
 
Hey Jo Jo,

Glad you like your mare. My daughters previous pony was Irish & very nervous of men. My husband could take his feed bowl to him (he lived for food) & he would stand & shake at the back of the box rather than come for his food. It was so sad that someone in his past had done this to him. My husband was only ever very kind & gentle with him but he was just so nervous it was very sad. Also he did not like fillers & hated ditches. He would stop & then panic that he was going to get beaten for stopping so we felt it was so unfair on him to make him so unhappy. We had 3 fantastic years with him until my daughter outgrew him & he was sold to an adult for dressage, they too adore him & he is really happy.

With our new lad we knew that he hadn't done any jumping with our friend & she let us take him to a pony club rally to see how he reacted. We have a full course of Jump for Joy jumps & he didn't even look, he flew them all including the water tray. He is jumping in the PC teams at Hickstead in 3 weeks time....watch this space.

As regards legs, it's interesting you say that as he too has one back leg which is not straight. It looks very odd when he moves but our vet like yours said she felt he would be very much capable of doing the job. I have to say that it has definitely improved since he has been working properly & has muscled up so you mare could well do the same.

Good luck with her, sounds like you're going to have great fun
 
Hmm interesting. I think my mare is ok with men. I havent taken any man with me to see her but the woman who keeps two ponies in the stables opposite often has her husband with her and she isnt scared of him. I do think she has been hit in the past though because she can be particularly spooky at sharp movements near her head. I know most horses would be but I dont mean average. When I take her rug off and lay it over the stable door I have to be slow or she spooks and throws her head up and tries to shoot back. Its getting better though cuz she knows im not gonna hit her. My yard owner even said she has done similar a few times as she turns her out in the morning for me.

Im trying to find a good farrier thats local to be my regular one. I've only had her shod once since I bought her and he was trimming more off one side of the hoof to try help correct the angle but he isnt that local so I need to find another. She's muscling up more. Just hope she doesnt get fat overnight cuz I put her in the lusher half of her sectioned paddock as the half she was in is getting quite bare lol. She was so happy to have huge mouthfuls of grass and not nibbling at the dirt anymore.

Good luck with your lad at hickstead. Let us know how he gets on!
 
I went down to visit Ride Irish about 3 months ago, we were looking for a horse for my friend. She told them she was a novice who lacked confidence and they showed us to a lovely looking dun called Dandy boy, we tried him over sj/ x/c and hacking, gallop- he did everything we asked of him. He was for sale for £6k.
At the end of the day my friend bought another horse, a bay, which mattered to her the most!
But i couldn't fault their sales technique, non pushy, allowed you time with the horse on your own, happy to show you other horses, happy to load them into a trailer for you to see, honest about where the horses come from. The horses are all in lovely spacious stables with plenty of bedding and they look in good condition.
I would have seriously considered purchasing a horse from them at that time, sadly they didn't have any big enough! But they go over to Ireland all the time.
My advice would be to take someone experienced with you at the viewing, if you can go back at least a 2nd time, try the horse in every aspect. They will say that their horses sell quickly- (which is true, we saw a steady stream of people whilst we were there trying) but at the end of the day, you have to feel 100% right, and make sure you get a vetting done, because most irish horses over from ireland won't have their vaccinations!

Good luck!
 
Well Neddy, the one i was particularly taken with was merrick (i adore palaminos!) but they all look great. 6k is a bit too much though but maybe this credit crunch will bring prices down a bit?? who knows! I will prob just go to see, i have got a friend who is really knowledgable with horses and i always take her with me to see horses and she often does this for people and she knows exactly what to look for....dont know what i would do if i didnt know someone like that!
 
Neddy, I have just had a lovely Irish gelding , not fron Ride Irish, he's only just 5, and he too hates me touching his ears, so maybe he has had a bad experience with the twitch, I can do naything else with him, but go near the ears and he seems to panic.

I am taking it slowly and have managed to brush the tops of his ears and if he relaxes he looks like he's enjoying it.
 
Alex,

Merrick has the same sire as my lad but Leo's sire isn't listed. If you ring them it would be interesting to see if those two are related.

Leo is identical to our's & having watched the video he even moves & jumps in the same way.

Good luck in your search
 
Irish-Whiskey

I am told it is common practice in Ireland to ear twitch them which is such a shame because like your's our lad also seems to enjoy having his ears brushed but only for a short time before he too gets panicky (sp?) about it. We too will persavere
 
Neddy, thats interesting, if he is still there when i go/call them i will find out and let you know. I did see Leo, he moves really nicely and is really cute to look at...he was another one of my fav's and if your lad looks the same u are a very lucky horse owner!

Ill keep you informed.
 
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